Chapter 1 Yang Muge Kept His Word

As expected, Yang Muge kept his word. After they parted ways and returned home, Zhou Yi opened QQ and saw a system notification inviting him to join a QQ group named "Ball Buddies."

After clicking "Accept," the group popped up, and people were already talking inside, using a bolded, size twelve Microsoft YaHei font in purple.

"Lao Yang, why did you think of creating a group? I thought you didn't use QQ much?"

"Hey, there are only two of us in this group. What's the point of creating a group for just two people? Can't you just call me if you have something to say?"

"Did you come up with this group name? It's so awful and unoriginal!"

...

"Whoa, hold on, a newcomer joined? Who is it!"

"'This Monk's Dharma Name...Guo Nu'...Lao Guo, could your name be any more tasteless!"

Amidst the long string of purple chat logs, another purple message appeared, but the font size was larger, and the font was not Microsoft YaHei, but Song.

"What's wrong with my name?"

"You should've called yourself 'This Monk's Dharma Name Yanshe'!"

This was Yang Muge, with the ID "Roasted Fish," who also sent a grinning emoji.

"Damn you, Sun Pan!"

"You've got the wrong guy, Lao Guo. I'm Zhou Yi," said the person with the ID "Ice Shard."

Just then, the group system notified: "Your Grandpa is Still Your Grandpa has joined the group."

"Damn, who is this? What a domineering name!" "Ice Shard" said.

"Hello everyone, I'm Sun Pan, known as 'Pan Pan Arrives Home, Live and Work in Peace and Contentment' of 'Pan Pan Security Doors'!" "Your Grandpa is Still Your Grandpa" said, his bright red font extremely eye-catching in the group, impossible to ignore or miss.

Ice Shard: "You're my grandpa, Zhou Yi!"

Your Grandpa is Still Your Grandpa: "That's right, I'm your grandpa, Pan Pan. I didn't expect you to be such a chatterbox in the virtual world."

Ice Shard: "I'm the same on the inside as I am on the outside!"

This Monk's Dharma Name Guo Nu: "Heh, you don't even dare use your own name for your ID. What do you mean, 'the same on the inside as I am on the outside'?"

Ice Shard: "What the hell? Lao Guo, do you think I can't reach you through the computer screen?"

This Monk's Dharma Name Guo Nu: "Milan welcomes you, Sun Pan."

Your Grandpa is Still Your Grandpa: "Hey, Lao Guo, that's strange. Is your stutter gone?"

This Monk's Dharma Name Guo Nu: "Damn it! I stutter, but I'm not clumsy!"

Ice Shard: "Ah ha ha ha ha!" followed by an emoji of someone lying on the ground, pounding the floor with laughter.

Even Yang Muge couldn't help but laugh: "Haha!"

"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!!!" Guo Nu, humiliated and enraged, typed five "damn"s in a row, followed by three exclamation marks to express his angry mood.

Your Grandpa is Still Your Grandpa: "Isn't that a stutter?"

This Monk's Dharma Name Guo Nu: "Damn it..." This ellipsis perfectly conveyed his helplessness in the face of a rogue like Zhou Yi...

***

He Ying habitually opened QQ, but unexpectedly received a system message inviting him to join some group. He looked at it, and the group was called "Ball Buddies." The introduction section was blank, with nothing at all.

Confused, He Ying directly clicked "Reject."

***

"Ah, He Ying rejected my invitation," Yang Muge said suddenly.

"Big shot," Although Sun Pan was typing, everyone seemed to be able to hear the "hmph" coming from his nose.

"With a group name like that, it's normal for people to reject it," Zhou Yi said. "This name makes it sound like a community football group, where everyone who joins plays soccer together near the neighborhood... This name has to be changed."

"I told you that Lao Yang's name wasn't good," Sun Pan chimed in.

"I'm not very good at coming up with names..." Yang Muge seemed to be scratching his head.

"Call it 'The Green Field Inheritors'," Guo Nu suggested.

"You're not good at naming things either, Lao Guo," Zhou Yi denied without any politeness.

"Then what do you say we should call it?" Guo Nu retorted.

"'Exclude Lao Guo', He Ying will understand as soon as he sees it," Zhou Yi said.

"Damn! I protest!" Guo Nu protested.

"Protest invalid, Lao Yang, change the name."

"Yang Muge, don't listen to Zhou Yi..."

Guo Nu had just sent this sentence when he found that the group name had been changed to "Exclude Lao Guo." He was heartbroken, but he didn't dare to type a string of "damn"s again, because he was afraid that Zhou Yi would call him a stutter again.

It had been almost a year since they last met, and Zhou Yi's skill in using venomous words had become even more refined. Guo Nu had thought that he was more confident than before after struggling alone in Italy for so long, but in front of Zhou Yi, he was still too naive...

After changing the name, Yang Muge sent another invitation to He Ying.

***

The computer suddenly coughed again, and He Ying clicked on it with his mouse, discovering another system message. His QQ was always invisible, and strangers would never add him, so he was very curious. Could it be the group invitation from before again?

Who's so bored?

He clicked it open and couldn't help but laugh.

"Roasted Fish invites you to join the Exclude Lao Guo group, do you agree?"

Exclude Lao Guo?

When he saw these four words, He Ying suddenly felt like he had returned to that time ten months ago. He was still participating in the filming of the *Green Field Inheritors* reality show, and Zhou Yi was his roommate. At that time, Guo Nu was an unpopular person on the team, but Zhou Yi was an exception. He had approached Guo Nu from the very beginning, and Zhou Yi had started calling him "Lao Guo."

Under his influence, Sun Pan and Yang Muge were also able to get along with Guo Nu.

The four of them were simply outcasts on that team.

Of course, He Ying himself was also an outcast, so in the end, He Ying also joined this outcast group.

Later, after the show was over, everyone went their separate ways and never saw each other again.

He came to Barcelona, Zhou Yi went to Dortmund, Sun Pan was at Chelsea in London, Yang Muge was at Schalke 04, and Guo Nu? The person everyone looked down on at the beginning went to Inter Milan.

A reality show team of sixteen people, ultimately, five of them made it, and it seemed that all five of them were outcasts.

When he was fighting alone in Barcelona, he couldn't help but feel lonely. His teammates here were actually very nice to him, and he had made friends here, but these friends were different from the friends who had fought side by side with him for two months on the reality show. From the bottom of his heart, those four people were closer to him. At the very least, he couldn't tell the friends he had made in La Masia about any difficulties or problems he encountered or anything he wanted to complain about.

At this moment, those four outcasts extended an invitation to him.

He Ying clicked "Accept" without hesitation.

***

"As the Shadow Follows joined the group."

"As the Shadow Follows? Is that He Ying?" Sun Pan asked.

"Yes, it's him," Yang Muge replied.

"Wow, I didn't expect him to be so repressed! He actually used his fans' cheering slogan as his online name..." Sun Pan was shocked.

"Hello everyone. Sorry, Yang Muge, I thought it was strangers trying to pull me into some weird group, so I rejected it," He Ying said after entering the group. "Also, Sun Pan, my fans are using my online name as a cheering slogan, not me using my fans' cheering slogan as my online name. I applied for this QQ account when I was ten years old, and I've been called 'As the Shadow Follows' since then."

"..." Sun Pan rolled his eyes. "Why are you so talkative on QQ..."

"Alright, everyone's here!" Zhou Yi jumped out and said. "Let me say something. I suggested creating this group today after meeting with Lao Yang to make it easier for everyone to contact each other. You can talk about anything here. After all, the five of us are in Europe, so we have to help each other. If you have any questions, you can ask in the group, and everyone should help as much as they can. If there's nothing else, you can also chat and bullshit—if you have time."

"It's also a good way to relax by coming online to chat with everyone occasionally," Yang Muge added. "Zhou Yi and I chatted for an afternoon today, and it was very enjoyable. It's a pity that everyone is too far away, otherwise we could have met up to chat."

"Meeting up is easy! Europe isn't that big. We can meet up anytime we want!" Sun Pan said.

"It's just that we don't have time. Everyone should be very busy these days," Yang Muge explained. "Zhou Yi has been promoted to the first team and has to work hard to play in the first team. The rest of us also have to gain a firm foothold in our respective teams... So during this period, we still have to focus on hard training."

"Yang Muge is right. Let's not forget what we came to Europe for," He Ying said.

"Actually, I came for the blonde bombshells..." Sun Pan said.

"Pan Pan, the British tabloids are well-developed, and the paparazzi are super fierce, so you have to be careful. Otherwise, we'll be able to see you in *The Sun*. Don't always be thinking about creating some big news," Zhou Yi said.

"Damn you!" Sun Pan sent a middle finger emoji.

He Ying was obviously more concerned about Zhou Yi's situation in Dortmund's first team: "Zhou Yi, how is it in Dortmund's first team? Do you feel that the competition is fierce?"

This was a serious question. After He Ying asked it, Sun Pan also shut up, and everyone was waiting for Zhou Yi's answer.

"I think it's okay. The competition is definitely more intense than in the youth team. In the youth team, I could be the core as soon as I came up..."

"Stop bragging and get to the point," Sun Pan reminded him.

"That's the truth!" Zhou Yi emphasized. "In the first team, I may not even be able to play in an official match."

"Didn't you perform well in the warm-up matches?" He Ying was very strange.

"My physical fitness is not good enough. Klopp said that my physical fitness is not up to standard. I also felt it during the warm-up matches. Indeed, if I had to keep playing according to the coach's requirements for the entire ninety minutes of the match, my physical fitness wouldn't be able to hold up."

"Can you play the full game in the youth team?"

"Sometimes I can."

"I see... Then why do you think there's such a difference between the first team and the youth team?" He Ying continued to ask.

"The requirements for running are higher, and the requirements for defense are also higher. The speed of passing and receiving the ball in the first team is much faster than in the youth team. You have to keep running and stay focused all the time in the first team. In addition, the physical confrontation is much stronger than in the youth team, not even on the same level. Most of the time, I have to have physical contact with them, which is also very tiring." Facing his friends, Zhou Yi did not hide anything and told them all about his experience of training with the first team for more than a month, hoping to help his friends.

"Besides physical fitness, confrontation, and speed, what else do you think is different?"

"Tactical discipline, I guess. The requirements for tactical discipline are stricter in the first team. Everyone has to strictly follow the coach's arrangements, and if you don't listen during training, you'll be scolded... Of course, this varies from person to person. Different coaches have different methods. Klopp is a notoriously strict coach, so he attaches great importance to discipline."

The others in the group didn't say anything. Although they had been joking with each other before, they were now watching Zhou Yi and He Ying's conversation very seriously.

Ten months ago, he was just a rookie amateur player, but now he was already able to talk eloquently with the most talented and famous people in the team about the difference between the first team and the youth team of a professional club.

During this period, the growth Zhou Yi had achieved was so great that it was unimaginable.

But how could someone with no foundation be more successful than them, who came from professional systems, in such a short period of time?

The effort he put in during this period was probably even more unimaginable than his growth...

***

ps, There are two more updates today, the last one is at eight o'clock in the evening, it's an Alliance Master bonus update!